Recall organizers respond to Newsom’s State of the State address

In his State of the State address Tuesday evening, California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the difficulties of the past year and promised brighter days ahead.

Californians will get there, the governor said, in spite of “nay-sayers and dooms-dayers.”

“To the California critics out there, who are promoting partisan power grabs with outdated prejudices, and rejecting everything that makes California truly great, we say this: we will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and our economy booming again,” he said. “This is a fight for California’s future.”

It was a subtle shot at the burgeoning recall effort, which looks poised to trigger an election and could potentially unseat the governor before he finishes his first term in office.

Newsom has battled unprecedented challenges in the past year, and on Tuesday he spoke to assure Californians he is still the right person to lead the state out of the pandemic.

Recall organizers weren’t convinced.

“He’s completely out of touch with reality, and that’s a pretty sad, pathetic state of the union that he lives in right now in his mind,” said recall committee spokesman Randy Economy. “(The recall) is changing the way politics is going to be played from this day forward here in California and from throughout the country. And for him to completely be dismissive of it was farcical.”

Recall proponents have been angered by lockdowns that kept businesses and schools largely closed last year.

Newsom pointed out that his decision to issue a stay-at-home order early in the pandemic, and other strict safety measures, saved the state from high fatality rates. California’s COVID-19 death rate is 137 per 100,000 people, a lower rate compared to Florida, at 148 per 100,000 and Texas, at 156 per 100,000.

Economy said Newsom’s address was a repeat of the messages he’s been sending every week since the pandemic and is the sign of a “desperate politician.”

“He’s up there taking what appears to be a victory lap tonight and the race hasn’t even begun as far as solving this crisis,” he said. “And it’s a political crisis in addition to his man-made crisis that he created under his draconian and dictatorial policies.”

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, speaking on CapRadio after the State of the State said he thinks Newsom missed a major opportunity in his address. Kiley, who has been supportive of the recall since the start, said Newsom could have used the speech to signal a switch away from unsuccessful policies around managing the COVID-19 crisis.

“I think this could have been an opportunity for him to say, ‘well, we’ve tried this experiment over the last year of one person making these monumental decisions that affect the lives of 40 million people, and maybe now is the time that we move towards returning power to local communities, and letting people have more control over their own lives,’” Kiley said.

Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, also speaking on CapRadio, said the governor failed to address important crises, like unemployment fraud.

“The reality is that California is now known for not being able to do the basics, despite all of the governor’s rhetoric,” Fong said. “This pandemic has clearly revealed problems created by Sacramento’s policies and failed leadership.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Recall organizers respond to Newsom’s State of the State address."